Why are Nigerian brands not on Nairaland and other local social media platforms?

Nairaland was social media before social media became anything in Nigeria. While it has failed to match its potentials, at least when compared with what Facebook and others have become, it retains its potency. In fact, every time a top Nigerian brand gets slammed on the site, the Executives quake.

You only need to visit profile pages of major companies in Nigeria to see how important they take social media. Hardly do you find any of these companies without dedicated teams just creating content on Facebook, YouTube, etc. on a daily.

With all the money spent on social media, why are Nigerian social media sites not benefiting from the spends? Or why are Nigerian companies not spending on Nigerian websites?

So many arguments exist:

The Nigeria social media environment is not big enough.

Some argue that social media in Nigeria is not big or the local websites don’t attract viewers. The assertion is simply not true as there are metrics to show otherwise. Nairaland has more engagement in Nigeria than Facebook. It currently ranks as the 7th most visited website while Facebook comes in as 8th. Many major stories are broken on Linda Ikeji, Bella Naija, Nairaland, etc. Those who love tatafo know where they tune their antennas.

Why I may not know the actual answers to this debacle, I know they have to do much more to become the platform of choice for brands and advertisers. They need to engage more, provide robust tools needed for targeting, curating and analytics. Going back to basic level, they even need business development executives to go after potential brands.

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Comments 2

Lord Mayor wrote:

Linda Ikeji has cleaned up her act with LIS and once that platform gains the necessary traction, This narrative is bound to change. Heard she turned down a $2m deal. Wise move since she can ‘Louboutin’ strap that operation based on her present cashflow (amebos say she nets 500m on an average non-election year). Nairaland is the platform that I don’t understand though. He tried that craigslist type setup (nairalist.com) a few years back but it didnt take and now he redirects to the nairaland. I heard the homeboy is cash heavy too, though with less social capital than Linda. He needs the kind of intervention she got prior to her new phase to help push that platform to the next level.

Another problem is the tribalists (Afonja and Flatties), they don spoil the forum. Not as it was when I registered slightly more than 5 years ago. Well, IMO, NL is a reflection of Nigeria and her citizens.

Finally, I have benefited a lot from her and cannot become a “Nobody” anytime soon.